Kit Richards

• BA (Hons) English Literature, University of Birmingham
• MRes Medieval Studies, University of Birmingham

I received my first-class BA Hons in English Literature from the University of Birmingham in 2015. I stayed on at the institution to complete my MRes in Medieval Studies; my thesis covered depictions of impairment and chronic illness in Old English saints' lives, penitential and judiciary texts, and Asser's 'Life of Alfred'. For the next 5 years I worked as a Special Educational Needs teaching assistant in secondary schools in Birmingham. Since then I have been successful in attaining funding from the M4C to undertake my PhD thesis at the University of Birmingham. My research interests include: disability and illness in medieval literature (especially Old Norse and Old English); disability in modern fantasy; transgender and queer identities in medieval and modern literature.

My thesis explores the representation of dwarfs in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), 'the Watch' arc of Pratchett's Discworld (1983-2015), and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-) and suggest the potential impacts these may have on society's attitudes towards people with dwarfism. My thesis will be structured around four key questions: what implications are raised by the classification of dwarfs as biological and cultural others; what does the spiritual and moral codification of height suggest about social attitudes towards impairment; what messages do the depictions of dwarfs’ sex and sexuality send about impairment?

Papers at the following conferences:-

• 'Marvels and Miracles' (2022) by the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (CCASNC). My paper was entitled: '"[V]ar hann svartr ok ljótr eftir skapan sinni": Marvellous Bodies in the 14th-century Göngu-Hrólfs Saga'.

Member of:

• Viking Society for Northern Research
• Tolkien Society
• Restricted Growth Association